COLUMBIA In mailboxes across South Carolina in 2007, likely Republican voters received a Christmas card signed by "The Romney Family" with a quotation from a 19th century Mormon leader suggesting God had several wives.

Mitt Romney's campaign, just a few weeks away from the 2008 presidential primary in a state where evangelicals look skeptically on the former Massachusetts governor's Mormon faith, condemned the bogus card as politics at its worst. The sender never took credit. And it was just another anonymous shot in the endless volleys of nasty campaigning in South Carolina.

While attack politics happen in every state, South Carolina's reputation for electoral mudslinging and bare-knuckled brawling is well-earned.

Why there? Largely because of the high stakes. South Carolina has always picked the GOP's eventual nominee since the primary's inception in 1980.

"The ghost of Lee Atwater hangs over South Carolina like a morning fog," said Scott Huffmon, a Winthrop University political science professor. Atwater, who died 20 years ago, was South Carolina's most famous political operative and a master of slash-and-burn politics.

Given the dynamics of this year's Republican presidential race, it's safe to expect under-the-radar attacks over the next week as challengers work to derail front-runner Romney before the Jan. 21 primary.

Romney at the ready

Romney says he's ready for whatever comes his way.

"Politics ain't beanbags, and I know it's going to get tough," the GOP front-runner said as he headed south after his New Hampshire victory.

The lore of negative attacks here includes a whisper campaign against Republican John McCain in 2000 that included rumors that the daughter his family adopted from Bangladesh was the Arizona senator's illegitimate black child.

Those were desperate times for George W. Bush's campaign. McCain had just stunned the establishment's choice with a blowout win in New Hampshire, and Bush had just 18 days to turn the momentum around in South Carolina. Publicly, Bush took a few shots at McCain, but mostly stressed he was the true conservative. But plenty of ugliness was happening behind the scenes.

People who attended rallies or debates found flyers on their car windshields with the accusations about McCain's daughter and raising questions about his mental stability.

Callers, pretending to be pollsters, would ask loaded questions of voters about whether they could support a man who had homosexual experiences or a Vietnam hero who was really was a traitor. Alone, none of the charges was all that believable. But their combined weight dragged McCain down.

A long tradition

Below-the-belt political attacks have a long tradition in the state, curried by political operatives like Atwater who during the 1980s essentially built the Republican Party from scratch in South Carolina.

But the rough-and-tumble politics go even further back.

Opponents of South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond, who served from 1954 to 2003, sometimes challenged him to fistfights after speeches early in his career because his attacks were so personal.

The only assault ever to happen on the floor of the U.S. Senate occurred in 1856 when South Carolina Rep. Preston Brooks beat Sen. Charles Sumner of Massachusetts with a cane severely. The beating happened after Sumner gave a speech condemning slavery.